People comparing Peters to McLellan, who actually won the Worlds, is a bit harsh on Todd right now I think.

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Well Finland did beat beat Todd's Canadian Team 4-0 in Round Robin as well, but that Finnish team went 7-0 in Round Robin. Biggest difference in two teams has really just been goal tending until tonight when the team took Latvia lightly.

Scoring after 7 for Todd was 34-8, whereas this team is 29-12 with a winnable game to go. The US game for Todd was 5-1 Canada, whereas 5-4 US for Peters, and most felt that game really should have be been 4-1 or 4-2 Canada if the goaltending was equal.

USA - FIN
USA playing to take #1 spot in group B, Finland plays to stay in 2nd place (or maybe overtake USA). 1st place in group B will face Switzerland or Slovakia in the quarter finals. 2nd place will face Czech Rep.
CAN - GER (McD, RNH, Nurse, Draisaitl)
CAN with a win and if Finland doesn't win in regulation against USA can take 2nd place in group B. If not they will face up with RUS or SWE in the quarter finals.

SVK - BLR (Sekera)
SVK need a win and to get lucky with the result in SUI - FRA game (i.e. SUI don't win in regulation) to have a chance to slide into the quarterfinals.

SWE - RUS (Larsson)
Playing for 1st place in group A, the winner probably plays FIN, DEN or LAT in the quarter finals, the loser may very well end up facing CAN. Or if DEN

Watching Aho gives me mixed feelings. Not only did we trade away our opportunity to draft one of Boeser, Barzal, Chabot. Then we went ahead and traded away our second too, giving up our chance to draft Aho lol. Still stings.

Watching Aho gives me mixed feelings. Not only did we trade away our opportunity to draft one of Boeser, Barzal, Chabot. Then we went ahead and traded away our second too, giving up our chance to draft Aho lol. Still stings.

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I don't think you can really look at it that way. The Barzal/Connor/Chabot picks would've been no brainers but Aho at #35 was a pretty huge surprise to most people. I had him rated much lower than that as did many of the scouting services. Don't think McKenzie even had him on his list. HockeyProspect had him #127, FC had him #110 and ISS #61. So he was far from a consensus early 2nd round pick. With that being it would've been way more likely that we'd have picked someone like Brandon Carlo or Paul Bittner.

I don't think you can really look at it that way. The Barzal/Connor/Chabot picks would've been no brainers but Aho at #35 was a pretty huge surprise to most people. I had him rated much lower than that as did many of the scouting services. Don't think McKenzie even had him on his list. HockeyProspect had him #127, FC had him #110 and ISS #61. So he was far from a consensus early 2nd round pick. With that being it would've been way more likely that we'd have picked someone like Brandon Carlo or Paul Bittner.

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I think if our staff could judge talent just a little better we’d have scouted the pure sniper lighting up the USHL. Was Aho that big of a surprise? A small, underweight kid putting up solid numbers (13p in 30games) in a men’s league doesn’t seem like that much of a surprise to me at #35. That’s just me though.

I think if our staff could judge talent just a little better we’d have scouted the pure sniper lighting up UND. Was Aho that big of a surprise? A small, underweight kid putting up solid numbers (13p in 30games) in a men’s league doesn’t seem like that much of a surprise to me at #35. That’s just me though.

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True. There were also some other signs that could've predicted that Aho might very well become a terrific player, but that would require looking a bit deeper than usual.

His father is the Sports Manager in a big FEL team and he's got a pretty impressive career himself. Aho also scored an OT goal in the 7th final in the FEL, and goals like that tend to have an impact later on. Aho's junior numbers were also exceptional and in the FEL he was coached by a very highly rated guy, who's actually now the head coach of the Finnish natioanal team.

It's quite easy to see 1+1=2 and make your decisions based on that, but harder to find the hints that could make the calculation something like 1+1+1+1+1=5.

Maybe it is better if they lose today so that they get to face one of Russia or Sweden, because with their record I'd worry about playing Switzerland...

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Our roster is pretty weak. I think the USA is suffering from what usually happens to us at every level... underestimating opponents from torching “weak” countries, then start playing like they’re skating in mud, taking penalties when facing adversity. USA can still come back lol though

Our roster is pretty weak. I think the USA is suffering from what usually happens to us at every level... underestimating opponents from torching “weak” countries, then start playing like they’re skating in mud, taking penalties when facing adversity. USA can still come back lol though

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I think Finland is pretty strong, on paper it may not look as strong as the most stacked teams, but they have a good system. That helps a lot and add to that a few top end players like Aho and Rantanen and you really have everything you need to go far. If they manage to play their game of course.

I think Finland is pretty strong, on paper it may not look as strong as the most stacked teams, but they have a good system. That helps a lot and add to that a few top end players like Aho and Rantanen and you really have everything you need to go far. If they manage to play their game of course.

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Oh I meant no disrespect to Finland, they’ve got a great team. I’m not sure who they’re missing apart from Koivu, Barkov, Saros/Rinne and the butcher Laine. I was just pointing out the similarities between Canada and the USA

Oh I meant no disrespect to Finland, they’ve got a great team. I’m not sure who they’re missing apart from Koivu, Barkov, Saros/Rinne and the butcher Laine. I was just pointing out the similarities between Canada and the USA

I think if our staff could judge talent just a little better we’d have scouted the pure sniper lighting up the USHL. Was Aho that big of a surprise? A small, underweight kid putting up solid numbers (13p in 30games) in a men’s league doesn’t seem like that much of a surprise to me at #35. That’s just me though.

Edit: USHL

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Yes he was. This was before Finland started churning out some real good talent. In the years prior there had been so many disappointing finnish prospects over the years that no one really believed in them anymore. I personally felt that Aho would just be another one of them, which is why I had him ranked really low.

Like you had guys like Granlund, Rajala, Armia, Pulkkinen and Teräväinen who had been quite hyped (some of them to an extreme) but looked very underwhelming at the time. It had pretty much gotten to the point where people only really believed Finland could develop goaltenders and nothing else.

But obviously it only took a year from Aho being drafted for all that to change with him, Laine and Puljujärvi having immense success. And then you can add in Rantanen, Barkov, Ristolainen too. So the perspective on finnish prospects and talent has shifted quite dramatically in a short period of time.

In hindsight, looking at Aho's stats in his draft year and draft-1 year he should've definitely been ranked higher but sometimes those perceptions and stereotypes of certain players and prospects take over.